ותשליך במצלות יםCast into the Depths

ve-tashlikh bi-metzulot yamIn Gamatria ↗

What was cast down does not rise to the surface again.

The ninth attribute: once Israel has repented and accepted its suffering, God does not merely remove the oppressor; He turns the oppressor's own work back on his head, as with Pharaoh, Sennacherib and Haman. Cordovero ties this to the scapegoat that 'carries' the sins (Leviticus 16:22), which the Zohar reads as the share given to Samael, the accusing force: the punisher collects the debt, Israel is cleansed, and in the end that force is itself undone. The sins sink, with the agents of judgment, into 'the depths of the sea.' The human lesson: do not hate a sinner already crushed by suffering; draw him near and rescue him.

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